Just One Overprivileged White Person's Opinion...

The University of Texas is considering taking down three statues of Confederate heroes on campus. There was a public forum yesterday where folks were able to share their opinions on the issue. The local news chose to air a comment from one black student who said of the white people who were speaking at the meeting, "I don't care what any of these overprivileged white people think... I'm offended (by the statues)."

Why select this hateful young lady's nasty comment, rather than air some thoughtful commentary from anyone else on her side of the discussion? This black racist is no different from any white racist, and I don't want to see her ignorant statement featured on the news, thankyouverymuch.

The media sure do enjoy stirring the pot.

Most of my confusion over Confederate heroes being featured and celebrated across the South relates to the fact that the Confederacy lost the war and ended up staying with the Union. I would have thought that these men would be less and less celebrated by southerners over time and their statues would have come down decades ago. No? It's always been weird to me. Maybe I'm missing something. It wouldn't be the first time. Perhaps they are all celebrated for reasons apart from their Confederate War contributions. Many of them, like Sul Ross (statue of him at A&M), were great leaders in their states after the war.

The Confederate flag isn't a big symbol in Texas, so I'm hardly an expert, but it has never signified slavery to me. I completely understand that many black Americans see it that way though. To most people, as evidenced by it's perpetual presence for 150 years without major issue, it's just a symbol of being a rebel, in a very general sense, like when a girl might say she likes a "bad boy." She doesn't mean she wants to date a serial killer (or some psycho racist who burns down a church). She just wants someone with a devilish twinkle in his eye, who might unexpectedly pop a wheelie on his motorcycle on that stretch of highway between College Station and Huntsville.

(I don't know anything about that, because I'm more of an "Everyone wearing their seatbelts?" sort of gal, but, you know what I mean.)

So if it's hurtful to a large group of Americans, maybe it's time to remove it. And maybe it's just plain old outdated. I don't really have a dog in that fight, so I leave it to the powers that be and the people who care about the flag to figure out. There is an issue though, with everyone being so flipping offended by everything these days. I thought we had finally swung around to a sort of acceptance of each other and our quirks and differences. It seems many individuals are becoming frighteningly intolerant of ideas different from their own, with a little prodding from the media to make a bigger, better story.

And to the owner of the Dukes of Hazzard TV show's General Lee, who is painting over the flag on the roof... The name of the car is the GENERAL LEE. Maybe the bigger socio-political statement would be to get rid of a car completely dedicated to the general. *eye roll*